To follow the agreement between two sides at the Third Meeting of the Philippines – Vietnamese Joint Commission for Bilateral Cooperation held in Manila, February 2003, the Vietnamese Academy of Science and Technology (VAST) and the Maritime and Ocean Affairs Center (MOAC), Department of Foreign Affairs of the Philippines will conduct the 3rd Philippine-Vietnam Joint Oceanographic Marine Scientific Research Expedition in the South China Sea (JOMSRE-SCS III) at the beginning of April 2005.
This is the 3rd Joint Oceanographic Marine Scientific Research Expedition to be conducted by the scientists of Vietnam and the Philippines. The 1st and 2nd Joint Oceanographic Marine Scientific Research Expeditions were conducted in April 1996 and May 2000.
These expeditions have been conducted to aim at studies on following topics: Physical and Chemical Oceanography, Ichthyoplankton, Marine Geology, Marine Biodiversity, Corals, Reef Fishes, Seagrasses, Macroalgae, Macroinvertebrates, in accordance with the Declaration on the Conduct of Parties in the South China Sea (DOC) by the Foreign Ministers of ASEAN countries and China in 2002 and the rules of United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) in 1982.